9/23/08

Tuesday morning I just had a 1B with a set of bitewings. It all went really well; I didn't miss any spots. His gums were really inflamed by his lingual bar. I gave him some floss threaders to use; hopefully he uses them .

That afternoon was much better; I had a class 4. It was awesome. I've never seen anything like his mouth, even in a textbook. He is going to have all of his teeth extracted and is getting dentures. On #3 I could see the entire lingual root, and there was plenty of room to get instruments under it. The tooth was so mobile I was afraid to do any hand instrumentation on it; I would have pulled it out. I don't think I've seen so much calculus in every patient I've seen put together. It was so cool. I was glad Emily finished early; she suctioned for me, it helped so much. His anterior teeth were a lot more mobile after I scaled; the calculus was giving them a lot of support. When I was done it was incredible to see the difference between the two sides of his mouth. He'll be in next tuesday for me to finish. I'm excited! When he comes back in I am going to try to get used to the curved ultrasonic tips.

Today was a pretty easy day. This morning I had a 1A and my other pt cancelled. I was able to pass off infection control, sealant, and selective polish PE's. I did two sealants and a set of 2 bitewings. My patient was a really good kid. She didn't have any problems with holding still or anything.

This afternoon I had a 1B. I did BWX on him too. He had x-rays 6 months ago, but they were not at all diagnostic; so I took more as retakes. They turned out really good.

I need to work on exploring. I still can't always feel the calculus.

9/9/08

My patient this morning was a recall. She was a class 2 the first time she came in and then a class 5 last time. Her last apt was 4 yrs ago, so I thought for sure she would be a class 2 again. She takes very good care of her teeth now though so she was a 5. It was a little disapointing, but it was cool to see how much she has improved. Her probe depths were better every time she came in. The first time she had some 8 mm pockets; now she had 2 4 mm pockets, but the rest were 2's and 3's. Her OH has improved so much. It's good to know that some of the things we tell our patients sink in and actually help.

My patient this afternoon was a class 5 also. She was the same kind of patient as this morning. She was very interested during OHI and was motivated to continue improving her home care.

Overall, today went really well. It all went smoothly. I missed a couple of spots, but I feel like my scaling skills are improving.